While reading 1 Peter 2:11 today, I began to reminisce over the distant past and memories from teenage days long ago.
I call upon you as strangers and sojourners, to keep from the fleshly desires, that war against the soul. 1 Peter 2:11 Young's Literal Translation
I entreat you as pilgrims and foreigners... Weymouth New Testament
...foreigners and exiles... New English Translation
We are in this world but not of it. Through Jesus we are a totally new race. We are sheep among wolves. Our minds are to be transformed and metamorphazised into God's way of thinking . We have been moved from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His dear son, Jesus. We are light in the darkness. All these are ideas of differentness. This is what we are to be; not weird, but different. The idea of being a foreigner and pilgrim, a stranger and sojourner has been a concept in my mind since I was a teenager. I guess it's always been an integral part of my destiny. It's part of who I am.
Being Christian, not participating in "the world", moving to a new city between my 10th and 11th grade in high school, going to Jamaica right after high school and then a year later living a in Venezuela for 13 months, all go together to put the Third-Culture-Kid into me [TCK - someone that is a combination of two cultures but doesn't fit completely into either]. Even though I grew up in the States the all of my early life, til I was 18, I have always had a bit of a different culture in me. And that is probably the reason I so identify with the idea of being a stranger and sojourner in this world.
Maybe that's why being a "foreigner" to me is no big deal. Maybe that's why moving from city to city is not a major event. Maybe that's why this Strange Pilgrim is such a content sojourner in this world. I'm still uncomfortable with change and uncertainty, but I'm willing and ready to go forward. And, I see that I'm even more uncomfortable with the status quo and the danger of becoming stagnant. What contradictions I find in my life, feelings and emotions! Desire for security and comfort, yet the need to take risks and move forward to new challenges and adventures. That's a part of who I am. I am a stranger, a foreigner and a pilgrim in this world. My home is in another land.
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